Florida deputy is shot in the head while responding to a dispute between neighbors over a CAT
By Snejana Farberov
Daily Mail
May 7, 2018
A Florida sheriff's deputy was left clinging to life after being shot in the head Sunday while responding to a neighbors' dispute over a cat.
In a Facebook post overnight, the Highlands County Sheriff's Office said Deputy William Gentry was critically wounded after a Lake Placid man suspected of shooting a cat opened fire at him.
Sheriff Paul Blackman told reporters that after speaking with the owner of the pet, Gentry approached the suspect, 69-year-old Joseph Edward Ables, at his front door on Baltimore Way.
Blackman said Ables shot Gentry in the head just before 8pm. The 40-year-old deputy was airlifted to Lee Memorial Hospital.
The sheriff's office tweeted early Monday that Gentry remained hospitalized in critical condition.
Ables was held without bond at the Highlands County Jail on charges of attempted first-degree murder without premeditation; possession of a weapon by a convicted felon; resisting an officer with violence; tampering with evidence and violation of probation.
According to officials, the 69-year-old man is an ex-convict with a history of violence towards law enforcement.
Online records show that in February 2015, Ables was arrested on a charge of battery upon a person 65 years or older. He was sentenced in that case to four years of probation.
The sheriff said in a statement that Gentry served as a K-9 officer between 2005-2013. He left the office but then returned in 2017 as a field training deputy, reported WFLA. His brother serves as a detective with the same agency.
'My dad was a cop, I was dating a cop, so I just knew I wanted to be a cop,' Gentry said during his 2017 swearing in ceremony. 'It's fun helping someone when we can. There is a genuine reward there.'
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said in a statement on Twitter saying that hurting a law enforcement officer is 'pure evil and we won't stand for it.'
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